Looking at a Vasudeo S Gaitonde work is the equivalent of staring out at sea. It's a one-sided conversation, in which you share everything on your mind, and the sea swallows it whole. "I believe his favourite thing was to sit out on a bench at the Bhulabhai Desai Institute and stare at the sea," says Kamini Sawhney, curator at Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF), housed in CSMVS, which is presenting an exhibition of his works from August 2 till December 25. "A lot of his '60s works give a sense of the sea, the horizon, the rocks in the foreground. Gaitonde was, in a sense, Laxman Shreshtha's mentor. Laxman and him used to sit [on the bench] for hours and just stare, not talk. The folklore is that once he turned to Laxman and said, 'You know why I like you so much? Because you know the meaning, the value of silence."

Gaitonde (1924-2001), Gai to his familiars, was an eclectic, electric man. In 2015, one of his untitled works sold for Rs 29.3cr at a Christie's auction, making him India's most expensive artist. But, to reduce the value of his works to an invoice is like putting a price tag to the Arabian Sea. "Gaitonde is so talked about," says Sawhney. "But the tragedy is, in today's world, it's in a monetary sense because the value of his paintings is so high." The exhibition, The Silent Observer, brings together three iconic Gaitonde collections in the city. JNAF, as collected by Jehangir Nicholson, has 14 works; TIFR, thanks to Dr Homi Bhabha's vision, is going to present five works; and Pundole's, whose collection was started by Kali Pundole and continued by his son Dadiba, will show 24 works. "Mumbai just hasn't had a chance to [appreciate them]," says Sawhney. "After how many years are we having a Gaitonde show? The Guggenheim [in New York] had a show [in 2014], but nobody had done a show of Gaitonde in the city. Rather than talk about the commercial value of the works, we want people to enjoy them." Dadiba Pundole echoes, "Art has to be seen. Keeping it in storage doesn't serve any purpose. The TIFR is also not an easy institution to walk into. So, this exhibition brings out [his works] into the public domain."